BigBasket and PremjiInvest may soon raise $50 million

Online grocery store Bigbasket is in discussion with PremjiInvest to raise a $50 million Series C investment round. PremjiInvest, the investment wing of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, is in talks with to lead the investment round in Supermarket Grocery Supplies that owns and manages BigBasket.com. Senior investment bankers who are involved in the matter have reported that the funding round will be wrapped up in three months.

BigBasket is swiftly growing to be a strong contender in the online grocery marketplace. Just seven months ago, the company raised its Series B of $32.9 million from a party of investors that had noted names like Helion Venture Partners and Zodius Capital.

Starting from Bangalore, BigBasket has now spread into major metropolitan cities of the country that include Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. Delhi is next on the list.

Other online grocery start-ups are not far behind. PepperTap recently raised a Series A fund of $10 million Sequoia Capital while Grofers bagged a Series B funding of $35 million from Tiger Global and Sequoia.

BigBasket is also planning to increase its delivery dominance over cities by tying up with offline partners, similar to how e-commerce giants Amazon have spread their network to be as close as possible to the consumers’ homes. The tie-up will have the local deliveries carried out within an hour by the staff of the stores with BigBasket providing tech-based management.

“The key to success is to control inventory, ensure products are delivered in time, and restrict order cancellation to a minimum” said Hari Menon, CEO, BigBasket.